Waterloo Lakes Overlook

Waterloo Lakes Overlook, Allamuchy Mountain State Park (5/28/2011)

We hiked Allamuchy twice in the past, both times in the lovely Deer Park Lake section south of Route 80. Today we headed to the section north of Route 80 (it's a big park). While we hiked the Sussex Branch Rail trail in 2009, which passes through this section, this is the first time we hiked in the hills in this area. And what a view we got when we reached the point I call Waterloo Lakes Overlook. It just might be the most spectacular vista in all of Morris County. OK, so technically its in Sussex County, perhaps just a tenth of a mile north of the boundary with Morris County, close enough. Incidentally, today I was reminded of why I love winter hiking so much. We were literally swamped by mosquitos from beginning to end, despite repeated applications of insect repellant. It was just about the worst we've ever encountered in New Jersey, and we decided to cut our hike short because of them.

We parked in a huge grass lot just off of Route 604 (Waterloo Road), across from the entrance to Waterloo Village. Here we took the Highlands trail north to the viewpoint, continued until its intersection with the co-mingled White and Yellow. Here we turned left taking this west. When White continued to the right, we turned left to continue on Yellow. We planned to taking this all the way back to the Highlands, where we were going to eat lunch at the viewpoint. But the mosquitoes made us decide to take an unmarked trail south all the way back to the car.

Total distance hiked today was 3.4 miles in 2 hours.

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